1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to machines for distributing objects or for obtaining pre-payment services, and to a connected collection device allowing the coins collected in payment of the former to be periodically collected and stored temporarily in the machines.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Vending machines of this type are used for example for the issue of various objects (food, stamps, tickets, etc . . . . ), or for obtaining services (right of way, road tax, etc . . . . ), in exchange for coins. A more specialized application concerns machines issuing parking tickets intended to be attached to the windshield of vehicles in certain urban paying parking zones.
The pre-payment distribution machines generally comprise, in a fixed housing on a support embedded in the ground, means to evaluate the coins introduced into the machine by the user, means for distributing objects in terms of the sum introduced, and a strong-box or money-box, into which are fed the coins having caused the distribution of the objects. The sums thus collected in the strong-box of a machine are periodically collected by a member of staff charged with this collection operation.
The housings of the strong-boxes ensuring the temporary storage of coins in the machine can be classified into two main types. A first type consists of providing the machine with a removable strong-box, accessible to the collecting staff through a reinforced and locked door, in order to be replaced by an empty strong-box. The strong-box itself has a lockable door, the key for which is not available to the collecting staff on site. Another type consists of using a strong-box, semi-movable but connected to the machine, which may be tilted after opening a door to the machine which is locked and giving access to this strong-box. The strong-box in the tilted position is thus coupled to the head of a collection device by maneuvering one or more keys. This device comprises, in addition, a tube connecting the collection head to a collection strong-box mounted on a mobile carriage into which the coins fall by gravity and where they are inaccessible to the collection staff.
In the individual case of vending machines of parking tickets, these machines are of course installed on the public highway and consequently, are more and more frequently the object of burglaries and break-in attempts for the sums contained in their strong-boxes when they are not under surveillance at night.
In fact, in the first type of machine mentioned earlier wherein the strong-box is removable, protection against theft is ensured only by a door which after being forced, gives free access to the strong-box. The latter is then taken away by the wrong-doers to be emptied at leisure elsewhere. In the other type of machine mentioned, protection is principally ensured, in addition to the access door, by the fact that the strong-box is immovable and consequently must be forced open on the spot. In practice, it has been observed that this protection was quite illusory and that once the door had been forced open, the strong-box was in turn cut away from its support by means of simple tools, such as a chisel and a crow-bar, then taken away as in the first case.